Well I've now had the new 03 Cobra for almost two weeks so it's time for me to stop living vicariously through all the SVTPerformance forum posts for the last 6 months of waiting!!
I ordered the Cobra (#5777) in the last week of March and it arrived on rail to Vancouver, B.C., Canada on September 2nd. I received it on September 5th and have now got 450 miles on it.
A few impressions re the dealer and the vehicle follow.
I bought the car at Coastal Ford in Burnaby, B.C. The Salesman - Jim Williams, and Sales Manager - Dave Michnik were great to deal with. The price was MSRP - CAN $ 46,940 plus documentation fee and taxes. This is about US $ 29,500!! This is great. The problem is we have to pay 7% federal GST and 7.5% Provincial sales tax. Don't governments suck!!! Coastal threw in a nice leather sleeved SVT jacket. All in all I recommend them to anyone.
One tip for those tracking their car. Once you have a railcar number, log onto www.steelroads.com, register, and then you can track the delivery route and times through every station. It does get pretty exciting towards the end!
I think the car looks awesome in black. All the new body parts, the wheels, the lowered front and the bit of a forward rake look great and there have been many compliments. I took the car to an open track day at mission sponsored by Brown Bros. I wasn't able to run on the track but the car was like a magnet with everyone wanting to see it!!
Driving impressions are great so far. The car has serious grunt and will only get better with some more miles and some selective modifications. I can't get over how quiet it is. A real stealth machine! When you stand on it though it sounds like a big jet engine! It seems hard to tell by ear what RPM you are at, without looking at the tach. Because the power is so linear and effortless it does not seem so fast but everything disappears in a hurry in the rear view mirror! And you can be into the rev limiter very quickly in 1st and 2nd gears.
The car feels very tight, handling is super - very firm and neutral in the corners. Easily modulated with the throttle.
The only negatives are that the transmission is noisy, rear axle was a bit noisy but these seem quieter as I put on some miles. Yes the drivetrain has slack and can clunk a bit but I guess thats part of the price of a manual tranny. The shifter is a bit vague in finding 3rd gear sometimes, otherwise OK but a Steeda or Pro 5.0 new will be ordered. And yes it does have skunk! Hopefully that will go away.
One neat thing about the Canadian cars that you guys in the US don't have - our speedometers go up to 260!! Well OK it's kilometers per hour, but it looks cool. See the photo attached.
Well that's enough for now. Got to get the Zaino!
Gord Z.
PS - I'm not sure if the attachments will show up or not!
I ordered the Cobra (#5777) in the last week of March and it arrived on rail to Vancouver, B.C., Canada on September 2nd. I received it on September 5th and have now got 450 miles on it.
A few impressions re the dealer and the vehicle follow.
I bought the car at Coastal Ford in Burnaby, B.C. The Salesman - Jim Williams, and Sales Manager - Dave Michnik were great to deal with. The price was MSRP - CAN $ 46,940 plus documentation fee and taxes. This is about US $ 29,500!! This is great. The problem is we have to pay 7% federal GST and 7.5% Provincial sales tax. Don't governments suck!!! Coastal threw in a nice leather sleeved SVT jacket. All in all I recommend them to anyone.
One tip for those tracking their car. Once you have a railcar number, log onto www.steelroads.com, register, and then you can track the delivery route and times through every station. It does get pretty exciting towards the end!
I think the car looks awesome in black. All the new body parts, the wheels, the lowered front and the bit of a forward rake look great and there have been many compliments. I took the car to an open track day at mission sponsored by Brown Bros. I wasn't able to run on the track but the car was like a magnet with everyone wanting to see it!!
Driving impressions are great so far. The car has serious grunt and will only get better with some more miles and some selective modifications. I can't get over how quiet it is. A real stealth machine! When you stand on it though it sounds like a big jet engine! It seems hard to tell by ear what RPM you are at, without looking at the tach. Because the power is so linear and effortless it does not seem so fast but everything disappears in a hurry in the rear view mirror! And you can be into the rev limiter very quickly in 1st and 2nd gears.
The car feels very tight, handling is super - very firm and neutral in the corners. Easily modulated with the throttle.
The only negatives are that the transmission is noisy, rear axle was a bit noisy but these seem quieter as I put on some miles. Yes the drivetrain has slack and can clunk a bit but I guess thats part of the price of a manual tranny. The shifter is a bit vague in finding 3rd gear sometimes, otherwise OK but a Steeda or Pro 5.0 new will be ordered. And yes it does have skunk! Hopefully that will go away.
One neat thing about the Canadian cars that you guys in the US don't have - our speedometers go up to 260!! Well OK it's kilometers per hour, but it looks cool. See the photo attached.
Well that's enough for now. Got to get the Zaino!
Gord Z.
PS - I'm not sure if the attachments will show up or not!
